EA: 'Wii sales weaker than expected'

Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello has voiced his frustration over the decline in sales of Nintendo's Wii console, Seeking Alpha has reported.

EA currently holds the strongest third-party share in the platform, which has seen a sales dip during the first half of the current fiscal year.

"To be honest with you, I think the Wii platform has been a little weaker than we had certainly anticipated. And there is no lack of frustration to be doing that at precisely the time where we have the strongest third-party share," Riccitiello told analysts during a second quarter earnings call.

The studio currently accounts for 21% of the Wii's market in North America, and 14% in Europe. "While we have hit our share goal for the Wii business, revenue is well below expectations due to underperformance of the Wii platform," read a statement on investor relations site.

Riccitiello added: "We are reaching out to Nintendo to find ways to partner to push third-party software harder. I frankly think they need more beats in the year than they get out of a first-party slate to be able to have the Wii software platform perform as well as they would like.

"We are building the products that are I think the most highly rated on the platform and at this point in time, generating the most revenue of any third-party platform," he continued.

"Very, very few multiplatform titles are succeeding on the Wii so far and collectively, Electronic Arts and Nintendo need to tackle that."